Third party service providers of network services often store and manage customer data which is accessible over a network. A problem with such a configuration is that the content of the data, which may be sensitive, may also be accessible to the third party provider. In other words, an employee with sufficient rights or a hacker who gains unauthorized access to the service provider may gain access to the content of this data. Alternatively, the data may be the subject of, or relevant to a litigation in which case the service provider could be subpoenaed for the data. Each of these scenarios causes additional workload and responsibility for the service provider and concern for customers.
It would thus be advantageous to provide systems and methods which enable the customer to store the data with the service provider while restricting access to the content of the data to all but the customer. It would also be advantageous to encrypt the data and provide the tools for decrypting the data only to the customer and/or to someone whom the customer selects.